ACTIVITY OF TROPANE ALKALOIDS ON A GENERALIST HERBIVORE AND PREDATORS: ARE COMPLEX STRUCTURES MORE EFFECTIVE?

• Grant number: 08/01924-3
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: May 01, 2008
• End date: April 30, 2009
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Ecology
• Principal Investigator: Alberto José Arab Olavarrieta
• Grantee: Gisele Cristine Massane
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biologia (IB). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Some plants defend themselves against herbivory by using toxic secondary metabolites which can act by repelling or affecting the performance of their natural enemies. Tropane alkaloids constitute the main group of secondary metabolites in solanaceous plants of Daturae tribe, being scopolamine and atropine the most abundant tropane alkaloids in the genera Brugmansia and Datura. According to Berenbaum (1983) and Berenbaum & Feeny (1981), due to the adaptation of herbivores to specific toxic compounds, some plants produced novel substances through the modification of the precursors of toxic compounds, thus rendering them less suitable to their natural enemies. Since atropine is a precursor of scopolamine, this study aims at determining the relationship between the activity and the molecular structure of these alkaloids on a generalist herbivore model and their sequential interaction with predators.